Long lines of stately royal palms, of white-trunked Cuban laurel, from whose branches the glossy green leaves never fall, of cocoas, mangoes, almonds, tamarinds, and a score of others, border mile after mile of the national highways, furnishing grateful shade and softened light that otherwise would try the eyes. Every turn and curve of the driveway brings change. There is no sameness of landscape, no monotony of level. Each mile, each moment, presents something new. Expectation is seldom disappointed. Nothing perhaps is more startlingly novel or strikingly beautiful than when, in early summer, the touring car, rounding a curve, suddenly brings to view a line of flamboyans in full bloom. Lips open in surprise, eyes fasten on what seems a forest of fire. The great banks of brilliant red and golden yellow waving in the breeze need only smoke to proclaim the roadside all ablaze. The camouflage of Nature is perfect and strangers of the tropics will bid the chauffeur pause until they can feast their eyes on this riot of color. [Illustration: AN AVENUE OF PALMS The splendid highways which under the Republic have been created in all parts of Cuba have not been left as mere roadways, but have been provided with hundreds of thousands of shade trees, for the comfort of travellers as well as for the scenic beauty which they enhance. There are hundreds of miles of driveways shaded and adorned with stately palms or other trees, like that shown in the illustration.] The most interesting excursions through Cuba radiate from the Capital. One of exceptional charm stretches east through Matanzas to Cardenas, a comparatively modern, well built little city of some thirty thousand souls, resting on the southern shore of Cardenas Bay, just a hundred miles from Havana.